About the Book: (from Goodreads.com) Internationally acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbø’s antihero police investigator, Harry Hole, is back: in a bone-chilling thriller that will take Hole to the brink of insanity.

Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Out his window, in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably appeared in the yard earlier in the day. Around its neck is his mother’s pink scarf.

Hole suspects a link between a menacing letter he’s received and the disappearance of Jonas’s mother—and of perhaps a dozen other women, all of whom went missing on the day of a first snowfall. As his investigation deepens, something else emerges: he is becoming a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game whose rules are devised—and constantly revised—by the killer.

Fiercely suspenseful, its characters brilliantly realized, its atmosphere permeated with evil, The Snowman is the electrifying work of one of the best crime writers of our time.

Setting: Oslo, Norway

About the Author: Jo NesbØ is a musician, songwriter, economist, and author. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the Glass Key, the Riverton Prize, and the Booksellers Prize, and one of his Harry Hole novels was voted best Norwegian crime novel of all time by Norwegian readers. He lives in Oslo.

Related Media:

My Review: I started listening to The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, but found I was having a hard time keeping the characters straight and really getting into the story in the audio format. This book was to be discussed by my book group and I really wanted to finish it so I purchased the kindle format as well. I was able to track the characters and the story better in the written format. I honestly can’t say if this was the book or my attention. It helped to see and write the names of the characters down.

Once you think you have it figured out, the plot twists and several people come under suspicion through out the book. My original thoughts were correct in the end. There is a bit of the creep factor throughout the book. I do think it was genius to make such a innocent thing such as a snowman so evil. Harry Hole was my favorite character, thought he was a bit of the stereotypical macho detective. I also found Katrine Britt to be an interesting character with many sides to her. I do wish I knew a bit more about her, but maybe I would have to read more of the series.

A co-worker of mine has read most of the series and really likes the Harry Hole series. She mentioned to me that in the series you always meet the killer in the book, so I was a bit preoccupied by trying to figure out which character could be the Snowman. I must be honest in saying, I am not a huge fan of mysteries. I don’t know why, but I tend to get very bored and impatient near the mid point of the story. I just want to know the ending already. I felt less like this with The Snowman, after a bit of a drag in the middle, the story did grabbed me again and kept me interested to the end. I have been in such a reading slump lately that to have read this book to the end was a bit of a accomplishment for me.

I look forward to book group as one of our members has a fear of snowmen….I wonder how she weathered this book. And am I the only one that doesn’t get the mold in the apartment?? I think I missed something!

My Rating: 3/5 - I liked The Snowman by Jo Nesbo and even mentioned it to one friend who I know enjoys mysteries, but I don’t think I will be clamoring to the library to reserve more book from the Harry Hole series. I am just not a huge lover of mysteries. That is the truth of it.